


Webslinger

by aebirdie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Deadpool!Lance, Fluff and Angst, Language, M/M, Minor Character Death, Orphans, Spiderman AU, Spiderman!Keith, broganes, pining boys, she/them for pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-10-15 21:45:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10558190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aebirdie/pseuds/aebirdie
Summary: On the streets of New York, Keith encounters another superhero.Who also goes to Keith's high school, and unfortunately, Keith may have a big crush on him.Who knew being a superhero could be so complicated?





	1. Spidey Sense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first chaper is a ton of world building bear with me

In Mr. Rosen's history class, Keith had learned three things. One: Lance McClain's eyes sparked when they hit the sunlight just right. Two: Lance worked at Galra Tech, the biggest technology company in the city. He was an intern there. Three: Lance's parents left him at his uncles' house when he was three. It was eerily similar to Keith's own past. When he was five, and Shiro was eleven, their parents dropped them off at Aunt May and Uncle Henry's house. Keith doesn't remember much from that night, but he does remember not wanting his dad to let go of his hand. Shiro remembered that night though, and he would only talk about it in the middle of the night.

Besides, Aunt May and Uncle Henry took care of them. They knew a nice family, the Holts, who had two children, Matt and Katie. Shiro and Matt were the same age, and are now attending Stanford together. Matt wanted to do research for NASA. Shiro wanted to walk on the moon. 

Katie Holt-or Pidge, as she preferred to be called-their daughter, was three years younger than Keith. She had skipped third and eighth grade, and was now a sophomore at Garrison High. Keith was a junior there. 

Hunk sat down at the lunch table, dragging Keith from his thoughts. "My mom made tacos. Want some?"

"Man, you're so lucky your mom can cook," Keith grumbled. "Aunt May tries, but she really can't." 

"Hey, losers," Pidge slammed their tray onto the metal lunch table. "Food goo as always, huh?"

"Hunk brought _tacos_." Keith leaned in closer. 

"Hunk, buddy." Pidge scooted closer to Hunk. "You know that you're my favorite, right?"

"Hey!" Keith protested. "I literally grew up with you."

"I literally do not care," Pidge deadpanned. "If I had to choose between tacos and you, I would choose tacos."

Keith put a hand on his chest and gasped. "Excuse you!"

"Keith, look, it's your boyfriend." Hunk pointed to someone, and Keith watched as Lance walked into the cafeteria. He was flanked by three other people. A blonde with striking blue eyes, Nyma. Rolo, a white-haired guy with a varsity jacket on. The third girl, Keith didn't know. 

"He's not-" Keith started.

"Hey, Lance!" Hunk waved towards the other boy. Lance's face lit up and he excitedly waved back. 

"I hate you, Hunk," Keith grumbled. "Pass me a taco."

*  
The three of them-Hunk, Pidge and Keith-walked to Hunk's apartment after school. They all lived in Manhattan-right between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge-where apartment buildings lined the streets. Originally, the Holts had lived closer towards Times Square, but a few years ago, they moved to a street adjacent to Hunk's street and ended up living two apartments down from Keith. Keith and Hunk had become instant best friends in first grade, and when Pidge started tagging along with them, nobody complained. 

Next to Hunk's apartment lives the Altea family. Coran and Alfor Altea, along with their daughter, Allura. They happened to be Lance's surrogate family. Sometimes, when the three walked home together, Rolo would drop Lance off in his convertible. Rolo's dad was a hot shot doctor, and could afford to give his son expensive things like convertibles. Keith could barely afford a bike. 

"Mom, we're home!" Hunk announced as he opened the door.

"Talofa, Hunk and company!" Hunk's mom called from the kitchen. "How was school?"

"It was pretty good." Hunk led Keith and Pidge into the kitchen. "I have a ton of calc homework, though." When Keith and Hunk took the math placement test in eighth grade, Keith had barely made it into Geometry. Hunk went into Trig and Algebra II. 

"There's cookies in the oven. Kali made the dough." Hunk's mom gestured towards the oven. Kali was Hunk's sister. She was a freshman at GH. "Don't forget, you have that science tour at Galra Tech in Manhattan. I already called a taxi to take you."

"Thanks mom," Hunk said, and he went up to his bedroom, Pidge and Keith close behind. 

Pidge sat on the bed, and Hunk and Keith took the floor. Keith pulled out his Pre Calc homework. _The magnitude of a vector w is 28 and its direction angle θ is 90°. Write the component form for w_.

"So this science tour you signed me up for..." Keith started. 

"Lance works there, you know." Hunk teased. "I asked him, he's leading the tour." 

"Gee, thanks guys." Keith rolled his eyes at the pair of them and Pidge snickered. 

"Just looking out for you, buddy."

"I bet you are." 

The worked in silence for the next half hour, and then Hunk's mom was calling them down. The taxi had arrived to take them into the city. Pidge was the smallest, so they sat in the middle seat. The drive wasn't that far, and the cabbie took fast routes and sped up during yellow lights. Even from the speeding car, Keith could see the tall skyscraper that housed Galra Tech.

After the cabbie dropped the trio off(Hunk's mom had already paid them) they watched the people. Pidge usually dragged them to go people-watching on the weekends, but it was Thursday, and Thursday was movie night or baking. Pidge had always said that Friday movie nights were a bit of a cliche. 

Keith pushed through the big glass doors first. The inside of Galra Tech was modernized, with clean steel stairs and futuristic chandeliers. The railings in the stairs were made of glass. The receptionist had a MacBook open on her desk. When Keith picked up his name tag, he watched the small gif of him smile at the camera. In block letters under the hologram, it read _KEITH KOGANE_. They milled around in the lobby, watching the people around them rush around and get things done.

Hunk was playing Candy Crush and Pidge was showing Keith something about Loch Ness Monster theories when Lance made his way down the staircase. He was still in his school clothes-the gray shirt and jeans-but he had replaced his jacket with a lab coat. Cluched to Lance's chest was a TechTablet, one of the many technologies Galra Tech made. Keith was saving up his money so that he could buy one for Shiro next Christmas. 

"Hey, everyone," Lance waved to the tour group. Keith, Pidge, and Hunk were the youngest in the group. "I'm Lance, your tour guide. If you would follow me to the tech lab, please?" Lance started us the stairs again, and the tour group followed. "Here at Galra Tech, we make many different products, and work with DNA chromosomes to help improve..."

Keith stopped listening to Lance and looked around the room.There were scientists working at different tables, and Keith watched a blonde woman extract a strand of DNA from a tiny vial. It brought back memories from seventh grade, where his science teacher let them look at sheep DNA. Keith had given his to Pidge. A man wearing a tailored suit walked through the lab. He acted like everyone there was beneath him, and Keith observed as he walked down a long hall. Keith started walking after him. The tour could wait. 

Keith trailed the man throughout the building. He might have looked suspicious to the people milling about, in his red jacket that Pidge had dubbed The Emo Jacket. In all of the movies, the hero acted like he was meant to be there, so Keith straightened his back and began walking confidently. The sharply-dressed man walked down the hallway a few more minutes, and he didn't notice the teenager trailing after him.

Finally, the man came to a stop. The door had a sign with _Restricted: Radioactive Space_. Why there was a radioactive space at a tech building, Keith didn't know. You would think this room belonged in Area 51, not at the center of Galra Tech.He watched from around the corner as the man plugged the password into the keypad. _12 71 84 35 8_.

Keith waited patiently for his opportunity to arise, to crack his way into that room. The door had just opened when-

"Keith, there you are!" Lance's cheery voice echoed in the hallway. "The tour group's still in the lab, but Hunk noticed you had left. Figured you had wandered off." Lance raised an eyebrow at Keith, obviously waiting for an explanation.

"Oh, I, uh," Keith stammered. "I was just-"

"Well, Mullet, don't let anyone catch you exploring here," Lance grinned cheekily and gestured towards the door. "Don't get ARS either, you're too cute to die a painful death."

"ARS?"

"Acute radiation syndrome, Mullet." Lance started to walk away, presumably towards the lab. "Later."

"Yeah, later," Keith mumbled. It was weird that Lance hadn't told his bosses that Keith was sneaking around. Almost everything involving Lance McClain was new, uncharted territory. Keith tried to be as quiet as possible as he crept over to the keypad. Throughout the years, Keith had gotten scarily good at being silent. Whether it was playing hide-and-seek as a kid, or listening to Uncle Henry and Aunt May argue about the late taxes. He could sneak up on just about anyone, but Shiro had an uncanny knack for finding Keith. 

Keith punched in the key-12 7184 35 8-and the door slid open. Keith slipped inside, and he gasped. A glass circle was in the middle of the room, and spiders danced up and down on strong webbing. There was a clear pathway-marked with yellow caution tape-that led Keith around the room, and he watched the blue and red spiders weave their webs. All of the webs seemed to be interconnected somehow, as if the little spiders were working together to build their little home. Keith reached out and plucked a web like a musician does with a guitar string. He only realized his mistake a few seconds before the spiders began to fall. He brushed them off of his clothes, and he rushed out of the room, hoping to catch up with his friends and forget about the spiders. The door closed after he left.

*  
Keith tapped away at his laptop, looking at spider bites and what happened to the people who were bit. He had noticed the lump on the back of his neck Friday morning, and pulled the little web out of his neck during history. Hunk and Pidge were at Hunk's house, but Keith had given them some generic excuse- _sorry, can't make it, Uncle Henry asked me to, uh, help with dinner_. He had been feeling off the whole school day, and having his friends nose into his business wouldn't help. Besides, it was therapeutic to spend some time by yourself, right?

That was what Shiro had always said when Keith had bugged him to play freeze tag, or hide-and-seek, or Bingo. But if Allura Altea had agreed to play, that was a whole 'nother story. He would demand that they go outside. It was endearing, really. One word from the white-haired girl and Shiro would lick the blacktop.

Fortunately for Shiro, Allura was too nice to make him do anything stupid. She was in college now, at NYU. She and her college roommate had just begun renting an apartment together. Allura came home on the weekends. Keith knew that Allura loved her roommate like a sister, but there were a lot of late night calls that might have proved otherwise. _Sheri wants to throw anther party, Keith! Like, is she serious_?

Not that Keith would ever admit it, but it was nice to have her around. She was the older sister he had always wanted-she gave him advice and said silly catchphrases and paid attention when Pidge spoke up. Allura had always encouraged Keith to talk to Lance, and she and Shiro spent many long nights trying to convince Keith to do something about his crush. From apartment to apartment to apartment to apartment, the gang was inseparable. But in high school, Lance started hanging out with people like Rolo and Nyma. Cheerleaders and jocks. Girls who could flip three times in a row, and boys whose brains were so bruised that they occasionally forgot what day it was. Lance was into swimming and water polo, and Keith would be lying if he said he hadn't attended a few meets or matches. Keith was more of a soccer and track person himself, but he wasn't the one who had left.

It wasn't like Lance had ditched them out right-he still went to Pidge's band recitals and Hunk's baking competitions and attended the occasional movie night, and still insisted that Keith's homemade pizza was the best, even though everyone knew it came straight out of the box. It wasn't the gang anymore-Keith, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, Shiro, Matt. Their septet was down to a trio and the fleeting plus one. 

Keith sighed and turned back to his computer, hoping that there was something that could help him. _Do webs usually come out of spider bites? How long does it take to die from a spider bite? Reported cases of death by spider bite. Images- >spider bite._ If Keith could stay up all night, he would, but both Aunt May and Uncle Henry seemed to have a sixth sense for his misbehaving. They had always caught him red-handed, whether it was sneaking a cookie from the decorated car or reading under the covers, or staying up too late on his computer. It was a miracle that Keith got anything done without raising suspicion.

Shutting down the laptop, Keith moved towards his little bathroom. Keith slipped on something, and reached for the sink to steady himself. An odd cracking sound shattered in the quiet air as Keith fell to the ground. A chunk of the sink was now in Keith's hand. He reached for the sink to pull himself up, but them hesitated. Maybe staying away from the rickety sink was a better idea. He could just brush his teeth downstairs. 

A knock sounded on Keith's bedroom door, right on time. "Keith, honey?" Aunt May called. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, Aunt May." Keith placed the piece of sink on the ground carefully. 

"Do you need anything? Maybe I should come in," Aunt May's voice wasn't very clear through the wood door, but Keith got the gist. He knew that she would flip out if she saw half the sink on the floor.

"No, no, Aunt May, don't come in," Keith pleaded.

"Why not?"

"I, uh, I'm naked," Keith blurted out.

"Oh, I understand. I'll just be on my way, then." Keith's cheeks burned as Aunt May's footsteps faded away. 

"Oh my God." Keith flopped onto his bed, face first. 

"Where's Keith?" he heard Uncle Henry ask.

"Oh, don't bother him right now." Keith imagined Aunt May putting her hand on Uncle Henry's shoulder. "He's _busy_."

"I WASN'T DOING ANYTHING!" Keith shouted. 

"Teenagers," Aunt May sighed. It was strange that he had picked up on her voice, because she had spoken so softly. Man, what was with today? Broken sinks and super hearing. The world had gone to shit.

Keith groaned and went to go brush his teeth before falling asleep.

*  
Lance didn't have a car, but he had a bike. It was funny, to see a superhero on a bike, or at least he imagined. He was always the one in costume, riding towards whatever the Blade of Mamora wanted him to investigate. They worked underground, in the basement of an abandoned warehouse. When Uncle Alfor asked him where he was going, he was always tempted to answer with the truth. _Don't worry, Uncle Alfor! I'm just off to fight crime, shoot up some people, I'll be back for lunch! Save me a ham sandwich!_ The leader of BoM, whats-his-face, had made him promise to not reveal his identity to his family or friends. Only people Lance was sure he could trust. He wasn't even sure that he could trust the Blade of Mamora, since they had literally picked him up off the street and hauled him to their secret base. 

Oh, did he mention? Lance was hit by a car. In Brooklyn, where he didn't even live.

He was hit by a car two years ago. It was a hit-and-run, probably some junkie cruising West Drive for kicks and giggles. Going 110 in a _park_. Lance lived on a busy corner for all his life, at his uncles telling him to be wary of cars, don't walk on the street alone, etc, etc. But who would have thought that he would be hit by a car? He figured he was safe, ya know?

You always think that you're safe, but then a car hits you and masked guys bring you back to their creepy warehouse. Patch you up, fix your bike, tell you that they've adjusted your DNA and now, you've got superpowers, tell you to come by tomorrow. And what do you do?

You come by tomorrow. You go the next day after that, too. They start training you, teach you how to shoot a gun, hit a target. Show you how to take down eight guys at once with a tiny stick. Score you an internship at Galra Tech to win you over, convince you that they're decent people. _Here, have a job!_ And one day, as God was leaning back in His recliner and eating His popcorn and observing your daily life, as He does, he decided that things should get interesting for you. So the masked guys send you into the real world. 

The first mission was a bank robbery. Lance had gotten there, way before the police, and shut the whole thing down, left the robbers tied up nice and pretty for the boys in blue. Oh, but there was a video. A lanky boy in a mask and suit, beating up bank robbers. Thank Dios Uncle Coran hadn't recognized him on the news. That man had the eyes of a hawk. The woman who had taken the shaky phone video tentatively asked Lance what his name was. Lance had winked towards that camera-you couldn't see it because of the mask-and he had told her Deadpool. By the next day, rumors were flying. Why the mask? Must have a mauled face. Why the guns? Why Deadpool? What inspired the name? Who is he working for? Are they even a he?

Lance had all the answers, but he didn't want to talk to pesky reporters or buff cameramen. He was excited for Uncle Coran's lasagna, to be honest. So after that first mission, he got dressed in a public bathroom, grabbed his bike-he had put it in some park in Brooklyn-and rode home. Even though the Blade of Mamora hadn't given him superspeed, the ride was quick. It involved something with energy levels and regeneration, but Lance had always zoned out during lectures, especially from the masked guys at BoM.

Besides, being a superhero was the dream. A secret identity. Spare guns and ammo hidden in the closet. Suit and mask stuffed in the dresser. 

It was an adventure, and Lance craved every minute of it. Even though school sucked and he didn't like the crowd he hung out with, he felt proud of himself. Like he was important, essential to the city's survival. It was a high, being a hero. It was like he was at the top of the world.

Even at work, he felt at the top of his game. He led tour groups and worked his ass off. It was science, and science had always been Lance's best subject in school. And he was the one who had convinced Pidge and Hun to bring Keith along on their tour. Keith was more into art. As children, Lance and Keith had decorated nearly all the sidewalks they could walk too with chalk. Lance wasn't any good, but man, Keith could _draw._ He knew how to build stuff too-not like Hunk, but close-and over the summers, Keith and Lance would try their hand at making robots and snowcone machines. 

Then the hurricane of high school struck, and Lance felt more and more left out. Rolo and Nyma had invited Lance to sit with them, and that was that. He still loved his old friends dearly, but he fell out of place. They still talked and had movie nights, and Lance still pretended to not know that Keith didn't homemake his pizza, but they were after-school friends. 

And Lance's new friends...well, they were downright jerks. They were at the top of the freshman class, and Rolo got anything he wanted. It pays to have your mom on the school board. Rolo wasn't someone Lance would bring home for dinner. Uncle Coran would sign him up for a therapist if he did.

So, nasty school friends and good after-school friends. None of it made any sense, but that was high school. He knew what his sister would say(technically, Allura wasn't his sister, but they were close like brother and sister, and everyone just assumed that they were). She would tell him to get off his high horse and hang out with good people instead of mean ones. 

But she wasn't home tonight. Her roommate was throwing a party, again. Nyma had begged Lance to get her into a college party. He had said, _What parties? Allura just studies_. It had felt good to leave the girl out of that part of Lance's after school life. 

Lance's phone chimed, and he scrambled to answer. He had hoped that it was Allura, or Hunk, or Keith, even, but it was the Blade of Mamora. He rolled his eyes.

"Hello?"

"Car chase, heading towards Brooklyn. Stop it. Brooklyn Bridge." The voice was gruff, per usual.

Lance looked out the window of his bedroom, and glared into the rays of the early morning sun. "On it, boss."

*  
Brooklyn Bridge was oddly empty for a Saturday morning. The three of them walked side by side. Cars sped by, but there wasn't heavy traffic, which was suspicious for the city that never sleeps. The wind brushed at the bite on Keith's neck. He pulled his jacket closer to himself, as if he were protecting himself from the wind, the world, and everything in between.

"We could go to Jane's Carousel," Hunk suggested.

"I haven't got any money," Pidge grumbled. "You two are so chirpy in the mornings."

"It's 8:30, Pidge. Why didn't you have your coffee?" Hunk asked.

" _Well,_ I had known we were going to do this, I would have gone to bed!" Pidge snapped. Hunk took a step back. Pidge rubbed at her eyes, and gave Hunk a hug. "I'm sorry, Hunk. Didn't mean it."

"It's alright." Hunk gestured for Keith to join their hugging, but just as he moved closer to his friends, a costumed man biked past them and hopped onto the road. He didn't stick the landing, but dived and rolled onto the concrete. Swords were strapped onto the man's back, and Keith assumed that his guns were strapped to his legs, or hidden somewhere on his belt. It was Deadpool, the new vigilante running around on the streets of New York. Pidge wouldn't stop talking about him for weeks. His suit was red with black accents, and it looked totally badass, even though Keith would never admit it.

Deadpool stood there, right in the middle of the street. No cars swerved around him. No drivers honked at the costumed man.

Something was off. Something was very, very off about this whole situation.

From a distance, Keith could hear sirens. Keith nudged Hunk, who was next to him. "Do you hear that?" Keith asked.

Hunk frowned. "Hear what?"

Keith sighed. "Nevermind."

Fifteen seconds later, Hunk and Pidge could hear the police cars. They were speeding on the bridge, and Keith could hear the squealing of tires. He leaned over the railing, and saw a black Toyota driving wildly on the ride. "It's a car chase," he mused.

Deadpool still didn't move.

The Toyota was just a couple seconds away from Deadpool, but the vigilante stood still and placed his hands on his hips, Superman style. Deadpool pulled a gun out of its holster and aimed carefully at the car's wheels, blowing out the back wheels first and the front next. Keith let out a low whistle.

The car began to skid. All of the energy it had built up had no where to go, and it slid towards the railing of the bridge. Keith acted without thinking, and jumped onto the road. He didn't dive and roll like Deadpool had done, but lept onto the top of a parked police car. The Toyota was dangling from the bridge now, and Deadpool was doing his best to try and pull the car up. The driver was in the very back of the car, banging on the window shield. Luckily, the car's back wheels were snagged on the metal railing, but Keith knew that it wouldn't hold for long.

"You need to get him out of there!" Keith yelled as he gabbed onto the back of the car.

"Trying." Deadpool fished something out of his pockets. A gun. "Break the window!"

Confused, Keith smacked the gun on the glass. Nothing happened.

"No, shoot the window!" Deadpool shouted, them mumbled something about newbies. It infuriated Keith, for this random guy to just give him orders and boss him around. Keith aimed at the corner of the window, and shards of glass fell towards the driver's seat. The car started to slip of of his grasp. Deadpool began to go down with the car, the driver clutching onto him like a life-saver. Keith grabbed Deadpool's ankle, bent his knees to balance himself, and started to pull the two up. It was very easy for him, but he didn't want the police or the News helicopter to witness his super strength. Deadpool was on the ground first, and together, they pulled the driver up. Once the driver was firmly on the ground, he started looking for ways off the bridge.

"Not so fast, hombre," Deadpool put his gun in the small of the man's back. "Boys in blue here are gonna take you somewhere real nice." For a few seconds, the driver struggled, but with Deadpool's gun to his back, he quickly accepted defeat. 

"Sir, put down your weapon," one of the policemen called out.

"Who, me?" Deadpool shoved the guy forward and raised his hands. "I just did half your job, man!"

A policeman handcuffed the driver and threw him in the back of a police car. All of the policemen's attention was on Deadpool, so they didn't notice Pidge tossing his bike onto the road. Keith walked towards his friends, eager to go home, but one of the police trained their gun on him.

"You! Don't move or I'll shoot!" The guy was obviously new on the force-the gun was unsteady and shaking in his hands. Keith put his hands up too. "On the ground! Now!" Keith complied, kneeling down in the middle of Brooklyn Bridge. He glanced at his friends nervously. Pidge was taking a video, and Hunk was worriedly looking at the scene below him. Just as Keith was being handcuffed, Deadpool rolled towards his bike and sped off. Guns fired, but the vigilante still raced like the devil was on his heels. The guy had balls, Keith'll give him that. 

"Holy shit!" Pidge exclaimed. The police officer shoved him in the back of a police car as several of them drove off, in pursuit of Deadpool. They wouldn't find him in Brooklyn, and if the guy rode towards Queens and Harlem, or the Bronx, the police would give up. 

The car Keith was in drove off, presumably towards a police station. The car ride was silent, and the police radio was silent. If Keith was going to do this whole superhero thing, he would have to get his hands on one of those. They pulled into the NY City Police Department a few minutes later, and Keith breathed a sigh of relief. He could just walk home from here if he wanted to, and it wasn't that far of a drive for Uncle Henry. The policeman dragged him into the building. Replays from the chase were on TV, and Keith watched himself jump on top of a police car. He cringed at the dents in the roof. 

The guy took him to a desk, and uncuffed him, then recuffed him to the chair. One hand was free.

"Make a phone call to your parents, guardian, whatever." the policeman-Devin Scott, his name tag read-sat down in the other chair. Keith picked up the phone and nervously dialed.

The phone rang one, two, three times before someone picked up. "Hello?"

"Aunt May, it's me, Keith." Keith looked around the police station.

"What did you get yourself into this time, Keith Kogane!" Aunt May scolded. "I'm watching you, on the news! Keith, what did I tell you about associating with hooligans like that, that Deadpool character!"

"Could you pick me up, please?" Keith muttered. "I could walk home, I guess."

"Damn right, you can walk home! Give the phone to the policeman, right now!" Aunt May thundered. "I swear boy, you're decreasing my lifespan every time you open your mouth!"

"Bye, Aunt May," Keith said as he handed the phone to the policeman. They talked for a few minutes before Scot put the phone down.

"Son, have you met that vigilante before?" Scott asked.

"Nope." Keith adjusted in his seat.

"Do you know his true identity?"

"Nada."

Scott sighed and unlocked the handcuffs. "Alright, get out of here, kid."

Keith didn't want to go home. He'd rather face prison than go home to Aunt May's wraith, or Uncle Henry's disappointing stares. Since the police station was right near his apartment building the walk was too quick for Keith. The teal fire escape was about six feet over his head, so Keith jumped for it. He swung himself onto the fire escape, something that he wouldn't have been able to do three days ago. Something he wouldn't have been able to do since going into that weird spider lab thing at Galra Tech. He scaled the metal stairs until he reached his bedroom window. He looked into it for a second, at the clothes piled on the floor and the galaxy bed sheet strewn on the bed. 

Instead of opening the window, Keith climbed on. He pulled himself onto the roof off the building instead and balanced on the lip of the apartment building. He spun around and then stood up on the roof, and placed his hands on the edge of the building. He lifted his feet up until he was doing a handstand on the lip of the building. After a few seconds, he lifted his hands so that he was balancing on the tips of his fingers. He swung his feet down, removed his hands from the edge of the roof so that he was clmimbing on the building. Instead of slipping, he clung to the wall like a spider. Like some kind of spider-man.

Spiderman. _Spiderman_. Keith moved to his window and pulled out his sketchbook. His phone chimed, but he ignored the messages in favor of the spider that was slowly forming on his paper.

**Group With: Dad(Takashi Shirogane), Keef(Keith Kogane), HunkyMonkey(Hunk Garrett), Pidgeon(Katie Holt), SkinnyBandNerd(Matt Holt), PrincessBadass(Allura Altea), TheMcSucc(Lance McClain)**

**PrincessBadass(Allura Altea)**  
was that Keith on the news?

 **Pidgeon(Katie Holt)**  
yep!!!! sending video now

**Pidgeon(Katie Holt) sent video**

**Dad(Takashi Shirogane)**  
aunt may is going to kill you, keith

 **Keef(Keith Kogane)**  
don't remind me

 **Pidgeon(Katie Holt)**  
can't believe deadpool just rode away on his bike like that tho

 **PrincessBadass(Allura Altea)**  
he isn't owning up for his actions

 **TheMcSucc(Lance McClain)**  
he's a hero tho and they tried to put him in jail. he's been working really hard to help NY 2

 **PrincessBadass(Allura Altea)**  
he's a vigilante. he's not helping the city, he's harming it

 **TheMcSucc(Lance McClain)**  
not necessarily true tho. he's got that healing thing, makes him a hero or mutant or whatever

 **PrincessBadass**  
but he is causing havoc in the city, don't defend a crazy guy

 **Dad(Takashi Shirogaane)**  
allura he's just gonna keep arguing might as well stop while ur ahead

 **TheMcSucc(Lance McClain)**  
hmph


	2. Spidey and Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is so late and i don't have an explanation

These days, Keith was either sewing or climbing the walls of his room. His superhero costume was coming along nicely, with a black spider sewn into the middle and red and blue patterning for the rest.

Lance burst into Keith's room unexpectedly. "Heya, Mullet. Whatcha doing?" 

Keith quickly covered up his suit. "I'm-uh-making a Halloween costume?"

Lance's eyebrows furrowed. "It's January."

"I like to get a head start. What are you doing here, anyway?" 

Lance looked hurt for a split second before his easy grin returned. "We're studying together, remember? You said that's you needed to get your grade to an A in AP Chem."

"Oh, right." Keith looked down at his hands. He felt kind of guilty for snapping at Lance when it had been Keith who had approached him. And he had lied to Lance, too, about his "Halloween" costume and about his grade.

Keith had an A+.

"Hey, do you wanna know something?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, sure."

"I have an A in the class."

Lance grinned. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want to watch something, then?" Lance asked. Keith nodded and turned on the TV. 

"...Bank robbery in progress on 32nd, and New York's newest hero isn't there to help," the reporter said.

Lance checked his phone. "Shit. Sorry Keith, I gotta go."

"It's alright-" Keith called as Lance raced out of his apartment. 

He didn't really feel like watching the news anyway.

*

"Keith! I asked you to go to the store fifteen minutes ago!" Aunt May yelled.

"Sorry!" Keith called as he grabbed his backpack and skateboard. He headed out the door, giving Aunt May a kiss on the cheek as he left.

Keith skated until he lost track of time, and then he continued. There was a little market that May liked, and the sky had turned a navy blue when Keith reached it. He couldn't see the moon through the dark gray clouds that were quickly gathering. He hoped it would rain.

Lance loves the rain. 

Of course, this was an unusual thought to have at 7:13pm in a tiny market, but Keith didn't mind.

Lance had been popping into his head at least once a day. And earlier, when Lance had come over, Keith was tempted to kiss him. A good, honest kiss.

Like, on the lips and everything.

Once-when they were kids, mind you-Lance had kissed him. Just to see what it was like. So, technically, they had been each other's first kiss. At seven, which wasn't the ideal age to kiss the boy you like.

It also wasn't ideal to pine after him for ten years.

Keith grabbed strawberries and tried to take his mind off Lance. 

"The money! Take it out!"

"Okay! Okay. Please, put the gun down."

Keith kept his head down low as he approached the register. There was a man with a ski mask on, holding a pistol against the cashier's head. The poor cashier was shaking, and his hands were scrambling at the register. 

"Hey!" Keith called. "Didn't your mom tell you that it's not okay to steal?" Without missing a beat, Keith dodged the bullet the man fired. The bullet shattered the glass door in front of the drinks section. The robber looked stunned before he ran off with a six-pack in one hand and his gun in the other.

The cashier met Keith's eyes for a split second before Keith chased after him, dropping the grapes as he sprinted away.

The robber ran three blocks until a black boot kicked him in the face. Deadpool swung in from someone's fire escape, taking out the robber's tooth.

Keith grinned. He had always admired Deadpool, for his antics and good aim. The robber stood up, stumbled, and aimed his gun at a harmless civilian close to them.

Not just any civilian. Uncle Henry. 

"You try that shit again, man, and this guy is dead." The guy's voice was shaky. He stepped closer to Uncle Henry, and placed the gun against the old man's chest.

"Young man, put the gun down," Uncle Henry said. Keith remembered that he had spent years on the force before screwing up his knee. Now he volunteered at a school as a gardener. The kids loved him.

"No way, man. No freaking way." The robber looked around. People were looking over towards them and someone had called the police. Keith could hear sirens. 

Apparently, so could the robber. The gun, now pointed at Uncle Henry's stomach, fired, and Keith's whole world lost meaning. 

Keith bent down to where Uncle Henry had fallen. Deadpool muttered something and gave the robber over to the police.

"Uncle Henry?" Keith whimpered. "Please, you have to stay with me. Please." Keith was begging now, tears streaming silently down his face. He grasped and his uncle's hand. "Please, you can't go, Uncle Henry."

Uncle Henry's wise eyes met Keith's violet ones, and Keith lent down closer to him, to hear his last words. To hear his uncle, his family, talk to him for the last time. But instead of talking, Uncle Henry pressed a business card into Keith's palm. "Take care of it, my boy," Uncle Henry whispered, his eyes not revealing the pain he was in. "And remember that everything is going to be bigger than you think. Go now, to your aunt." Uncle Henry reached up and wiped a tear from Keith's cheek. Fresh sobs racked Keith's body as Uncle Henry smiled at him one last time and went into an endless sleep.

An officer gave Keith a ride home. He could have skateboarded, sure, but the officer asked him in a tone that said _this isn't a question._ He wondered where Deadpool had run off too after, but Shiro had called and distracted Keith. Their conversation had happened over studying, so Shiro was absent-minded. It went a little like this:

"Hey, Keith. How's it going?"

"Not so good."

"Maybe later."

"I'm in a cop car night now."

"We can go over winter break."

"And then Hunk lit me on fire."

"He's a nice guy."

Keith considered telling him, but whenever he thought of what had happened, his eyes teared up and his voice choked. He couldn't bring himself to admit it. That his guardian, his father figure, was dead. That one of the few people Keith actually trusted was gone, and had given him a crumpled business card, like they were in a bloody mystery novel. It was for GalraPrince Corporations, a popular technology company that the CEO of Galra Tech's son owned. He had one of those weird white people names, like a celebrity parent had named him. Lotor. He sounded like he liked fancy dining and smelly cheese.

When Keith got home, Aunt May's face was buried in her hands and the kitchen table had a small pool of tears on it.

"Keith, you're alright!" Aunt May swooped him into a tight hug. "I heard what happened, with the robber and vigilante and Uncle Henry." Aunt May hiccuped. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"It'll be alright," Keith told her. He prayed that it would be true.

*  
It was late October, four weeks since Uncle Henry had died and three since the funeral. Shiro had flown in for it. Aunt May gave a speech. Keith sat in his seat and swore to all the gods he could think of that he would avenge his uncle. He would take down Lotor, even if he had to die to do it. He would get Uncle Henry his well deserved justice.

Everything is going to be bigger than you think, Uncle Henry had said. There was _defiantly_ something fishy about GalraPrince Corporations, and Keith thought about the red and blue suit hidden in his closet. 

Lotor would pay for whatever he had done to Uncle Henry Keith would make sure of it.

 **Group With: HunkyMonkey(Hunk Garrett), Keef(Keith Kogane), Pidgeon(Katie Holt)**

**HunkyMonkey(Hunk Garrett)**  
Gray's Papaya? 

Keith grinned. If anyone could be counted on to cheer Keith up, it was Hunk. He grabbed his backpack and jacket, and after a moment's hesitation, he put his suit in his bag too. You could never be too careful.

A subway ride later, Pidge and Keith sat at the counter in Gigi Cafe, waiting for Hunk to get their drinks from Gray's. All three had gotten pizza from Gigi-some hamburger pizza combination for Hunk, pepperoni for Keith, and four cheese for Pidge, who was trying a new vegetarian thing. Keith wondered how long it would last.

"So, Keith," Pidge said. "How's the incurable lust for Lance going?"

If Keith had been drinking something, he would have spat it out. "I don't _lust_ after him, Pidge."

Pidge snorted. "Do you remember seventh grade, pal?" She started to intimidate Keith. "Oh, I just wish that Lance would stick his-"

"Pidge!" Keith hissed. "Shut up!"

She took a big bite of her slice. "Nope, Keithy Keith. If the random people and tourists didn't know you were gay, they do now."

Before Keith could respond, the one and only Hunk Garrett came in, carrying three Gray's drinks. "It's cool that we got window seats," Hunk said.

"It's swell," Pidge muttered under her breath.

"Aww, y'all are so cute together." Keith placed his chin in his hands and looked at them adoringly to add effect. There. Let Pidge chew on that for a couple of hours, eh?

Pidge glowered at her pizza, and Hunk took the opportunity to change the subject. "I heard Deadpool stopped a bank robbery, but just barely. My sister says that there's new weapons going around the black market."

"I heard about that," Keith said. "There's a lot of people who think it's some sort of alien tech."

The woman sitting next to Keith perked up on the mention of alien tech. She adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses, which looked startling against her dark skin. If he wasn't gay, Keith would have asked for her number. And then gotten rejected. "If you don't mind me interrupting," the woman interrupted, "but where did you here about it? I'm writing a story about the new weapons used in local, everyday crime, and I need a trustworthy source other than the homeless guy that lives behind my building's dumpster." Her smile was easy and outgoing. She reminded Keith of a female version of Lance.

He didn't want to tell this woman the truth, which was that he had been looking into Mothman sightings and stumbled upon some conspiracy theories regarding alien tech on Earth. It was almost too embarrassing to talk about. 

And if he did say it out loud, Pidge would endlessly tease him about it. He decided to not talk about the Mothman thing.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, well a lot of employees at Galra Tech and GalraPrince were forced to quit because they had seen what they weren't supposed too. Some say that they thought that Zarkon resembled a purple cat in the mirror." Keith expected her to laugh. Pidge certainly was. But the reporter nodded and wrote it down, like Keith was making a difference in whatever story she was writing. "There's a lot of people who think that the CEO's are aliens." This part was true. He had looked into it for his research on GalraPrince. Countless said that Lotor had light purple skin and long ears in mirrors. "If they are aliens, then they might be connected to the newer weapons on the market. Heaven knows what Zarkon sells besides phones."

"Is it alright if I quote you on that? Just the last part?" She looked at him hopefully and Keith nodded.

"What's your name?" The reporter asked. 

"Keith Kogane." Keith held out his hand to shake hers.

She smiled. "Laura McClain." And with that, she took her notebook and left Gigi Cafe in a hurry, probably eager to write her story.

Keith didn't realize the connection until that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gigi Cafe has the best ny pizza fight me


End file.
